I will not be sorry to see Dubya leave office next week. That's capital "W" as in "Worst ever."
I was amazed recently to read Bob Herbert's op-ed in the NYT describing the Decider as "the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantanamo and torture and rendition; who turned Clinton's economy and the budget surplus into fool's gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let [the Great Bird Hunter] run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job." Once the piece got warmed up by this spot-on characterization, it really got critical.
He has been ruinous in every way. Well over four thousand Americans dead in a war he started to avenge a slight to his daddy. Tens of thousands more grievously wounded and receiving inadequate care for their injuries. The economy in shambles.
This is the man who said he was going to work towards privatization of social security with his political "capital" from his second stolen election. Fortunately, "saner heads prevailed." I know fellow workers who have lost $150,000 or more in only a few months from their Federal TSP (401K) plans.
I looked at my private portfolio, containing all those little IRAs I have assiduously paid the maximum into every year since the eighties. On June 30th it was worth $62K. On September 30th it was worth $49K. On December 30th it was worth $32K. I put it all into government securities on that day. I should have been putting those contributions all those years into a mattress, because then I would have been ahead of where I am now.
You could probably guess my political orientation. When our children were growing up, Sharon and I tried to teach them to be good little Democrats. After all, when you're young, you're supposed to have a heart, right?
You know how kids fight. When they were all in grade school, my oldest son was once teasing my youngest son. He hurled the ultimate insult at him, "You're a Republican woman!"
My youngest shook with rage at this terrible slur. He was so furious that he was incapable of refuting this dastardly characterization all at once, so he flung off the worst part first. He shouted, "I am not! I'm no Republican!"
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7 comments:
Bumper sticker seen yesterday in Whole Foods parking lot in St. Paul:
JANUARY 20, 2009: END OF AN ERROR
Great post, Peter.
I hope somebody in Obama's staff and some of the press is keeping watch on the damage the Dubya & Co is doing in the lame duck days. Oh sigh!!
Dubya is easy to figure out - he's stupid and easily led.
I've had a harder time figuring out the Veep, who is apparently the person really in charge. He's NOT stupid.
Finally I realized that he is a sociopath, and a cunning one at that. How else could he approve of torture, electronic evesdropping on innocent citizens, the outing of Valerie Plame (we know he did it), and the horror of Guantanamo Bay, all the while happily fattening the pockets of his Haliburton buddies with extremely lucrative no-bid contracts? He's not just corrupt - it's a serious personality defect.
Oh, and by the way, I was a Republican. Not any more.
Oh, I like that bumper sticker Sunshine mentioned. It's so true! Just think of what might have been if the popular vote had prevailed in 2000.
Here's hoping that Obama can do all we want him to do - there are a lot of wrongs to right..
Happy new 2009!
I just hope we will start seeing a turnaround in 2009.
It's been a tough year, esp. the last 6 months.
Here's to next week..err...the week after! (Well, aside from the cluster that will be DC for a few days).
And nice new banner!
I am so excited for Tuesday! I'll be glued to the TV, watching the Inauguration. Did you go to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial today? I watched it on TV and got all choked up when Peter Seeger sang, "This land is your land."
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